A Murder at the End of the World (Season 1) started with an intriguing premise that worked fantastically as a charming blend of Nordic noir, hard-boiled detective story with a dash of science-fiction. With a lot of tension, spillage of secrets, and another murder (at the end of the world, where else?), A Murder at the End of the World (Season 1) Episode 3 proves to be a fascinating thing this week as well. Let us start the post-mortem right away.
A Murder at the End of the World Episode 3 Recap:
The ameture sleuth is at work
We knew Darby would go any distance to get to the bottom of Bill’s death. Staying true to her nature, Darby attempts to squeeze information out of Tomas, aka the waiter with whom she had an accidental collision right after Bill’s death. The guy was only on his way to deliver “three” cups of tea to Bill’s, and after a bit of pushing, Darby managed to get a hold of that info. In her room, she scans through Bill’s online connection with all the other guests with the help of Ray’s digital findings. Darby and we both find out that Rohan happens to be a climatologist, but the interesting thing is the man has been off the grid for so many years.
Soon after, Darby notices a mysterious person outside the hotel and follows the person in the freezing cold. She realizes this is (most likely) the same masked person who has everything to do with Bill’s death. Barely avoiding getting caught, Darby notices the mystery person’s pair of boots with red laces. But what is more important than that is the person signaling something to somebody far in Morse code, which basically says another murder is soon going to take place.
Can Lee be trusted?
The chilling footage of the masked person has spooked Darby so much that now she considers everyone, including both of her hosts, Andy and Lee, a suspect. On the contrary, Lee seems to fully trust Darby as the two of them have a conversation late at night. Darby finally gets the whiff of Lee and Bill’s relationship, and unless you count one embarrassingly wasted night of hookup where ultimately nothing sexual happened thanks to a loss of erection, it was nothing but a very close friendship. In fact, Bill appeared as Lee’s savior when she imprisoned herself inside a cocoon after being deepfaked in porn videos by many of her hacker enemies. Lee doesn’t seem to have any motive for killing Bill whatsoever, but can she be fully trusted?
What is Rohan’s deal?
On the way to see a presentation of the future Andy dreams of, Darby catches up with Rohan. She is curious about him because this is the only person who shed real tears after getting the news of Bill. Just like Lee, in Rohan’s story, Bill again comes up as the savior. The man pretty much lost it all after realizing the world is gonna end sooner rather than later (isn’t that a good thing, though?) and drowns himself in alcohol. It was Bill who made sure that Rohan got out of that. However, Rohan’s years of sobriety are now gone, as he couldn’t help getting back to it in order to cope.
Meanwhile, we are introduced to Oliver’s swarm robotics, which is basically a slew of AI ants building a mini-society. Andy is elated to show what a future where human beings don’t have to make buildings and fend food for themselves might look like, and Darby can’t hide her excitement. However, Darby’s short-lived burst of happiness, thanks to the distraction, is soon gone when she discovers that the pair of boots with the red laces belongs to none other than Rohan. She immediately confronts Rohan about it, which freaks him out, and he abruptly leaves.
A Murder at the End of the World Episode 3 Ending Explained:
In the past, Darby and Bill ran their passionate investigation about the “Silver Doe killer” (not sure if they’ve uttered the phrase yet, but it seems fitting). Bonding over a deadly combination of coffee and coke (which Bill fails to handle) and their love for true crime, the two seem at home with each other, compared to the sigh teenagers we saw last week. Emma Corrin and Harris Dickinson having fantastic chemistry between them is further helping the cause, not to mention. Thanks to Darby’s digital finding of a woman who survived the wrath of the killer, the two get on the road.
After a cross-country journey through midwestern America, they finally knock on the survivor’s door. The woman is surprised to see two mere teenagers being this serious about finding a serial killer, but it also motivates her to tell her story, where the silver earrings play a big part, of course. This is not a criticism per se, but it probably would have been better if we didn’t know the outcome of this story from the beginning.
In the present, Andy gets jittery about Darby being nosy and potentially harassing his esteemed guests. Hell breaks loose on Darby when Andy politely asks her to leave the resort and return to America. It is basically him trying to throw her away, and he makes all the arrangements for her return. But Darby is a tough cookie, and getting rid of her is not an easy thing, especially when she has a personal stake in the whole thing.
So she decides to stay despite Andy’s hostility. He also mentions that he is aware of Darby hacking the footage, which is not particularly surprising considering the character is basically omnipresent. What is surprising, though, Andy shares the specific time Bill injected himself, which is minutes before the masked man knocked at the door. Of course, Darby has no reason to believe that he is telling the truth.
The whole thing really becomes the equivalent of a club sandwich when Rohan gets murdered in the most dramatic manner. Just when Todd arrives to escort Darby out of the resort, she receives a call from Rohan, who claims to have nothing to do with Bill’s death, but he does have some very important things to say. Just when he is about to spill his secrets, his words get jumbled.
It takes a few seconds for Darby to realize the man is suffering and rushes into his room, only to stumble onto an opened hip-flask with alcohol leaking. A horrific scream (Ziba, most likely) confirms the death, though, as Rohan’s lifeless corpse is found near the reception, where everyone reaches almost at the same moment. Seeing no other option, Andy calls for a lockdown.
Some notes:
- Despite always trying to do the right thing and being a good person, Bill had a lot of haters. Andy’s apple of the eye Oliver is not a fan of Bill’s artistry and openly criticizes him even. Bill was classy enough to retweet that, though.
- Ziba is a strange piece of work, it seems. Her song about “free spirit” sounds rather ominous than uplifting.
- Rohan was morse-coding to another person, whom neither Darby nor us had seen yet. Could that be Andy, by any chance? Although, at this point, Andy being the mastermind behind Bill and Rohan’s death seems way too basic for a show like this.
- Are Marling and Batmanglij gonna give a nod to “Among Us” at some point?
